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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by dusty rhoads on March 17, 2010, at 11:39:01
I have been suffering with severe PMDD for about 5 years, and just found something helpful that I wanted to share. My PMDD makes me extremely irritable, anxious, depressed and withdrawn for about 3 weeks of every month.
I've been doing a lot of research on PubMed, and learned that women with severe PMDD tend to have lower estrogen and melatonin levels than other women. I also stumbled across a couple of studies that link grapefruit consumption with increased bioavailability of estrogen. I could not find any other natural substance that increases estrogen - some of the ones that are commonly thought to do so (soy, black cohosh, etc) can actually decrease estrogen!
I have been drinking grapefruit juice (diluted with half water), about a glass a day, over the past week, and have also been taking a very small amount of melatonin (0.25 mg) at night before bed. (I think most people could take more melatonin, but I also have fibromyalgia and am hypersensitive to many substances.) I've also been exercising every day. My result so far is that I feel markedly calmer, less anxious, not irritable at all, and even happy. I am a little bit sleepier, but I'll take this over raging anger any day, and am hoping that as I get used to these substances, the sleepiness may go away. I have a glass of grapefruit juice sitting on my desk at work, and throughout the day as moments arise that make me anxious or angry, I take a gulp of grapefruit juice and actually feel calmer within 10 or 20 minutes. Sounds crazy, I know, but it actually seems to be working.
So I just wanted to share my good experience. I should also add a warning that, as many of you know, grapefruit juice can interact with many prescription drugs and hormones, and can increase or decrease their bioavailability. I think this includes some SSRI's, MAOIs, birth control pills, etc. So if you want to try it, do your research carefully.
As a side note, my daily regimen also includes a potent multivitamin, the whole range of essential fatty acids (fish oil, evening primrose oil, flaxseed oil, etc), calcium + magnesium, and vitamin d. I don't drink alcohol or caffeine.
Posted by janejane on March 18, 2010, at 17:11:52
In reply to PMDD, grapefruit, and melatonin, posted by dusty rhoads on March 17, 2010, at 11:39:01
Thanks so much for sharing this. I'm glad you found something that helps. The warning about interactions is important too. I seem to remember that drinking grapefruit juice can increase the potency of wellbutrin, for example.
This is a really timely post for me as I just had some blood tests for hormones done (results expected next week) because I suspect I might have low estrogen (and possibly also low progesterone during parts of my cycle). From what I've read about the subject, I think I might have symptoms of both PMS-D (depression) and PMS-A (anxiety), which would mean both low estrogen as well as low progesterone. I was going to try an OTC progesterone cream (which is supposed to help with PMS-A, the more common type) until I found that taking it might worsen PMS-D if I happen to have it. I decided I'd better get some tests done to check my levels before doing something that would make me feel worse so I found an integrative physician who does bioidentical hormone therapy. I sort of wish the doctor had ordered the saliva tests that you take over the course of a cycle rather than single blood tests (since the saliva would show changes over time), but I guess the blood tests are a reasonable starting point.
By the way, did you know that green tea can lower estrogen? It has a lot of health benefits, but if you have low estrogen, you might not want to drink too much of it. In fact, it might be one reason why Asian women get breast cancer less often. Women who are heavy green tea drinkers have something like 13% lower estrogen (sorry I'm going from memory so that number may be a little off). Pretty interesting, isn't it?
Posted by Deneb on March 20, 2010, at 15:31:23
In reply to PMDD, grapefruit, and melatonin, posted by dusty rhoads on March 17, 2010, at 11:39:01
Hello Dusty Rhoads!
Welcome to Psycho-Babble! That was some very interesting and informative information that you gave us! Do you squeeze the grapefruits yourself?
I'm glad your methods are working for you.
Deneb
Posted by Deneb on March 20, 2010, at 15:35:01
In reply to Re: PMDD, grapefruit, and melatonin » dusty rhoads, posted by janejane on March 18, 2010, at 17:11:52
Are there other advantages to having lower estrogen?
I had no idea green tea could do that. I just know green tea had a lot of antioxidants.
I should start drinking green tea.
Deneb
Posted by janejane on March 30, 2010, at 11:12:11
In reply to Re: PMDD, grapefruit, and melatonin » dusty rhoads, posted by janejane on March 18, 2010, at 17:11:52
It turns out that my estrogen is OK, but my progesterone is low. I guess this makes sense since the majority of PMS is supposed to be from low progesterone (PMS type A), but I seemed to have lots of symptoms of low estrogen too (PMS type D). I wanted to find out my levels before trying anything since for example, if you take estrogen when you really need progesterone, you could make things way worse (exacerbate estrogen dominance).
Anyway, I got an Rx for Prometrium (100 mg), which is bioidentical progesterone (not synthetic). I'm supposed to start one week after my period begins and continue for 21 days. I won't be starting until next week, but I'll report how it goes. PMS is an off-label use but it makes sense that it should help. Many women seem to find it calming and take it at night since it causes drowsiness. That would be a great SE for me since my sleep has been really horrible.
This is the end of the thread.
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